ABSTRACT
Evaluating is about judging worth although some would say that it is about measuring effects. In this chapter, the author brings the notion of brokerage into play and considers how brokerage processes and outcomes might best be judged. He illustrates his points by considering what they might mean for evaluations of Educational Development Units, who fulfil a brokerage role within some Higher Education institutions, or for Subject Centres in the UK Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN). The author argues that there are limits to what evaluation-as-measurement-of-outcomes can do and evaluation can be a form of consultancy and, as such, does a lot for enhancing the thinking and work of those being evaluated. The evaluation of something as subtle as brokerage is the deployment of good, expensive, expert judgement that adds value to the system. The author provides guidance for those involved in the evaluation of brokered activities.
